We Indians are used to eating a lot of flat breads. In most of the Indian kitchens, it’s prepared every day and paired with some side dish or lentil soup. Having said that, if you are from eastern India, we are more used to eating rice in our daily meal.

It’s only after my marriage that I started to cook and eat paratha or roti on a regular basis. One of the most common flat bread preparation is stuffed paratha, which I am still struggling with, but stuffed poori with lentil is something I managed to learn faster.

Poori is puffed up bread that is deep fried and very commonly prepared at home for Sunday breakfasts. It goes perfect with any curry, pickle or even with tea for snacks.

Today I am sharing with you a simple ‘daal poori’ recipe which I had made especially for my friend Radhika of Food for 7 Stage of Life.

Radhika is one of my very close blogger friend who lives in the Garden State of America with her loving husband. She is very passionate about cooking, writing and she shares it beautifully along with some pictureperfectphotographs in her blog.

What I love the most about her is her warm and friendly attitude. When we were about to talk on the phone for the first time, I was wondering how it would be.. well, it felt like I knew her for ever, that’s the kind of comfort level she gave me! When she asked me do the guest post and told that she likes savory vegetarian dishes, I immediately thought of these pooris and I hope she likes it.

It’s always a pleasure to share a recipe in your friend’s blog.

Daal is an Indian soup made with pulses (dried lentils). I used ‘toor daal’ to make the stuffing but you can use any other kind of lentils. These pooris are usually prepared with left-over lentils that are slow cooked to dehydrate it completely. Cooking the lentil soup for long hours will eventually make it dry and crumbly and that’s the texture we need for this recipe. These dry crumbs are then used as stuffing inside the poori.

You can use your choice of spice mix in the crumbs. The only key thing is to make sure that it is not moist or else, when you roll the stuffed dough, it will tear apart. Well, I am horrible in making stuffed paratha and if I could stuff these pooris, then anyone can 🙂

When plain pooris are fried in hot oil, they puff a lot but these pooris will not puff as much and that’s because of the stuffing inside. Just fry it to golden color and enjoy these hot with some curry or just pickle.

So, lets hop in to Radhika’s blog now and see the detail recipe. And while u are there, don’t miss reading her DIY project!

Daal Poori/ Deep fried Indian bread stuffed with Lentils

Ingredients

For the stuffing

1 1/2 cup boiled lentil

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 or 2 green chilies, finely chopped

1 inch ginger, grated

1 tsp asafoetida, hing

2 tbsp tamarind paste

Salt to taste

Oil

For the poori

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tbsp Oil

1 tbsp carom seeds, ajwain

water to knead the dough

oil for deep frying the poori

Instructions

For making the stuffing, heat 1 tbs oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds, asafoetida and ginger to the pan.

Once they start to splatter, pour the boiled lentil and start cooking in low heat.

Add rest of the spice mix (turmeric, coriander powder, chili powder), chopped green chilies and tamarind paste. Cook in low heat and keep stirring in between until it becomes dry and all the water is absorbed.

Then, keep it aside and let it cool completely. Once it is cooled, the filling will become more dry and crumbly.

For the poori, mix flour with carom seeds, salt and oil. Add some water and start kneading.

Once the dough is ready and the stuffing is completely cooled, you can start the making the pooris.

Divide the dough in equal tiny balls.

Roll the balls a little, pour 1 tsp filling in the center and wrap it to form a ball again.

Using a rolling pin, roll it to a 2 inch diameter circle. You need to be patient while doing this or else it might break apart.

In a deep pan or wok, heat enough oil for frying the pooris.

To test if the oil is at the right temperature, drop a tiny piece of dough in the oil and if it rises up immediately, you are ready to fry the pooris.

Drop just one poori in the wok at a time. With the back of your spatula, press the poori very lightly and it will start puffing up. Remember that these pooris will not puff like normal pooris as they have stuffing inside.

The poori should take about 30 seconds on each side and should turn golden in color.

Take it out of the wok, put it in kitchen towel and let it drain the extra oil.

Continue frying rest of the pooris and serve immediately with your choice of side or pickle.

Kankana… My day has just started and now I”ll be craving dal poori the whole day.. God I am drooling seeing these and imagining their taste. Hot out of wok with some achaar… Perfect. Beautiful clicks as always.

Wow, how beautiful – I love your blog… it’s giving me so much inspiration to try so many different things. These look amazing and I’ve never heard of them. I always worry because it’s difficult to find quite a lot of “non-traditonal” stuff in France but I’m going to do my best and try some of your amazing recipes 🙂

Kankana

September 27, 2011 at 11:49 AM

Thanks Charles 🙂 I hope you get the ingredients and let me know how it goes!

aipi

September 27, 2011 at 6:08 PM

Dalpuri makes me feel right at home. It is so much a part of culture in my native place that this is the first thing a newly wed bride makes in her sasural. Beautifully done Kankana! I make it myself n have blogged about it as well 🙂 USMasala

Did you say deep fried stuffed bread? I thought so, I am already there- got my fryer out now and ready to go! LOL! Oh I love this dish, so simple yet so fun and flavorful. Love that you added lentils to it! AWESOME

I had difficulty in the Indian words, but I love that you are sharing important ingredients and tuff from the Indian cuisine and culture. I hope i can find all the ingredients so i can start working on this recipe.

About

Hey there! I am Kankana and this is my culinary space where I unfold memories, share stories and try new flavours. Easy effortless cooking with fresh ingredients is my mantra and I like to carry that in my everyday meal.